Battle of Ansfelden

The Battle of Ansfelden (late June 1805) was a battle of the Napoleonic Wars that occurred when the 1,437-strong Grande Armee of the First French Empire, commanded by Empire Napoleon I, defeated the 1,707-strong Austrian army of Maximus Uhlenbrock at Ansfelden in Upper Austria. Uhlenbrock led the large Austrian army out of the strongly-defended Austrian capital of Vienna with the goal of destroying Napoleon's army and forcing it to retreat from Central Europe, but he made two mistakes: he left Vienna inadequately defended, and he did not have nearly enough experience to best Napoleon. His army charged across the field to attack the French troops, and his forces were peppered with grapeshot and held at bay by volleys of musket fire and by the tips of bayonets. The Austrians were routed by a powerful French counterattack, and 1,586 Austrian troops were lost, while a mere 225 French troops were lost. The Austrian defeat softened the defenses of Vienna, leading to the storming of Vienna and the end of the Third Coalition war.